During the opening session, welcome addresses were delivered by Mr Keiichi INOUE, President of JRA, Mr Jean-François CORTÉ, Secretary General of the World Road Association and Mr Moriyasu FURUKI, Chair of IRF, Subcommittee of JRA, which was followed by the opening remarks by Dr Keiichi TAMURA, Chair of TC 1.5.

A commonly-shared important lesson emerged from the three keynote presentations: adequate post-disaster management as well as preventive measures based on past experiences play a pivotal role in quick recovering from the major natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Dr Kiyoshi KOBAYASHI, Professor at Kyoto University, Japan, presented the idea of unforeseen risk and management perspectives. Mr Djoko MURJANTO, Director General of Highways, Indonesia, showed the response to the Merapi volcanic eruptions. Mr Herby LISSADE from CALTRANS, the U.S. outlined the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS). This system serves as the basis of emergency and disaster response for the Transport Authority of California as it integrates various activities among the State and local governments, NGOs, and private industries.

The technical sessions included presentations on management of emergency situations, risk management methodologies and application of risk management techniques. Risk management associated with tropical storms in Mexico and the application of quantitative risk assessment for road tunnels in Greece were concrete illustrations for participants.

Two Japanese experts explained how Japanese road administrations responded to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the tunnel ceiling fall accident in 2012. One of the key messages was:

"What saves us in an emergency is what we prepared. It is not enough to prepare based on our experience and we should prepare beyond our experience."

In addition to the technical meetings, a technical visit to the traffic control center of Hanshin Expressway was organized.